Bay to benefi t from
$5 million fund focused
on ageing well
Did you know?
• 24 hours of bed-rest reduces your
muscle power by 2.5% and not just
in your arms and legs but in your
heart and lungs.
• Older adults living at home
typically take 900 steps per day but
in hospital most patients only take
250 steps per day.
• Longer bed rest leads to a longer
stay in hospital and greater risk
of infection.
• For people 80plus, one week in bed
ages their muscles by 10 years.
Get Well and
Get Home sooner
Whakatāne Hospital staff swap their regular
work attire for activewear supporting ‘Get
Up ,Get Dressed, Get Moving’.
Helping people age well, retaining a
more active lifestyle in the process, is
the focus of a new $5 million fund. And
a handy smartphone app is just one of
the ways in which the money will be
used to help do that.
The funding from the Ministry of Business,
Innovation and Employment (MBIE) will
support the AWESSoM (Ageing Well through
Eating, Sleeping, Socialising and Mobility) trial,
scheduled to begin in September and which the
Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB)
will participate in. AWESSoM is headed by
Professor Ngaire Kerse from the University of
Auckland but a researcher will be based in the
Bay of Plenty throughout. Part of the trial will
involve adapting a smartphone LifeCurve app
which supports healthy ageing.
“In Scotland the LifeCurve is used to support
healthy ageing and to identify where Allied
Health professionals should be intervening,”
says BOPDHB Allied Health Director Dr Sarah
Mitchell, who worked on a similar programme
in Scotland.
Sarah says the work looked at the sub-optimal
life curve (where people endured a long period
of decline) and the optimal curve (where people
retained more function for longer as they aged).
to not being able to eat independently,” says
Sarah. “You can tell a person they are either
mildly frail, moderately frail, or severely frail,
but that doesn’t mean anything to them and is a
very defi cit based approach. But if you can tell
them where they are based on what things they
are able, or unable, to do, that means so much
more and focuses on their assets rather than
their defi cits.
“This is where you are but if you do this, this
and this, you can get better. It’s simple but
eff ective. It might also then suggest activities
the person might like to pursue to improve or
maintain their function.
“It might for example, suggest a local aqua
aerobics class with one of our partner agencies,”
added Sarah. “Because it’s fun and easy for
people, using real-life examples of everyday
tasks, it really resonates. People love it.
“At the end of the day what we’re trying to do
is to help people live healthier happier lives as
they age. The work in Scotland was based on
where it was best to concentrate our eff orts to
do that. The idea was to shift our Allied Health
expertise and in some cases resources much
closer to the top of the curve so that people
could benefi t more.”
Stylish activewear on show as hospital staff support
‘Get Up, Get Dressed, Get Moving’
Tauranga and Whakatāne hospital
staff swapped their regular work clothes
for their best active gear recently,
in support of the global Get Up,
Get Dressed, Get Moving campaign.
Linked to the social movement
#endPJparalysis, the campaign highlights
the importance, particularly for older
patients, of keeping active while in hospital.
There is plenty of evidence that immobility
in hospital leads to deconditioning, loss of
functional ability and cognitive impairment.
For the older person even a few days bed
rest can cause a rapid decline in muscle
strength and lead to an increased stay in
hospital and complications.
BOPDHB Nurse Practitioner Rosie Winters
Sarah says the proposed app will take people
through a series of questions based on everyday
tasks to assess their functionality. This
information will then be used to compare the
user with others of comparable age.
“Normal ageing starts with the process of not
being able to cut your toenails and progresses
through a number of stages all the way through
Just over a year ago the Bay of Plenty Health Consumer Council (BOPHCC)
began its work in the Bay of Plenty to help bring the consumers perspective
on health issues to the forefront of the Bay of Plenty District Health Board.
Consumer Council
Chair John Powell
A smartphone app is one of the ways
funding will be used for the new
Ageing Well through Eating, Sleeping,
Socialising and Mobility Programme
being trialled in the Bay of Plenty.
says, “Traditionally people think if they’re
in hospital they must stay in bed. We need
to shift that mindset and, as soon as possible
encourage our patients to get up and move.
“When patients come in and change into
gowns they sometimes tend to retract into a
passive role.
“Getting up and moving has been shown
to reduce the risk of falls, improve strength
and stamina and enable patients to
recover sooner.”
As part of the campaign, Allied Health
teams in both hospitals organised activities
on the wards encouraging patients to be
active. Patient meals were also delivered
with additional tray liners with the message
“Get better sooner by following the 3Gs –
Get up, get dressed, get moving.”
Bay of Plenty Health
Consumer Council update
“We’re living longer but we don’t want that
to translate as just more years of decline. We
want our work as Allied Health professionals
to be improving people’s lives and that means
targeting the work earlier on the curve where it
can have an impact and keep people more active
and mobile.
“What we found in Scotland was that 43% of
our work was taking place towards the end of
the curve. So basically a massive amount of
functional decline was going on without people
seeing Allied Health professionals.”
• Get up - spend less time on the
bed and eat meals whilst sitting in
a chair.
• Get dressed - get changed into
comfortable day clothes.
• Get moving - walk to the bathroom
and regularly around the ward .
The BOPHCC
is an advisory
and advocacy
body which will
endeavour to
represent the Bay of
Plenty community
to advance the
BOPDHB’s mission
of “Enabling
communities to
achieve good health,
independence
and access to
quality services.”
Chair of the Council John Powell says the past
12 months have been an active time of learning
for its 14 members who come from both the
Eastern and Western Bay of Plenty.
“We have received briefi ngs about the many
health services provided in the Bay of Plenty,
have visited Whakatāne Hospital, met with local
health leaders and practitioners from Māori,
youth, mental health and other services and
participated in working groups with the Health
Quality & Safety Commission, Ministry of
Health and General Practitioners New Zealand,”
says John.
“This has helped us gain a wider insight into the
provision of health services and areas that may
need greater attention in the Bay of Plenty.”
The priority for the Council has been identifying
areas where the Council can provide the DHB
with input from Bay of Plenty consumers. These
areas include prevention and early detection
programme/services, keeping children well
and out of hospital, healthy, safe and supported
youth, person and family/whānau centred
care, a healthy start for all babies and improving
lives of those with disabilities and/or long term
need, and the eff ective use of health resources.
“We are not set up to receive complaints
from the public, but to be a helpful and clear
consumer voice to the BOPDHB.”
John is keen to emphasise the strong
commitment from the members of the
Health Consumer Council to work with
anyone who has used, is using, or will use any
form of publicly funded health service, in the
Bay of Plenty.
To contact the BOP Health Consumer Council
email [email protected]